When an individual passes away it is customary for the body of the individual to be viewed by family and friends at a funeral home. After the viewing, a funeral or other memorial service is generally held at the funeral home or a church to commemorate the life of the deceased. Thereafter, a grave side service may be held with family and friends looking on. With the completion of the grave side service the casket is lowered into the grave where it will remain. A similar service may be held prior to or after the deceased is cremated. Usually after cremation the cremated remains are collected and presented to the family in a cremation urn.
The casket in which the deceased is displayed can be customized to fit the needs and preferences of the deceased and the family. For instance, a wide variety of materials, finishes, colors and decorative ornamentation can be chosen to meet these needs. The purchaser of a casket can also customize the casket using a variety of interchangeable stylized trim, for example, corner ornaments. The purchaser may select from a number of stylized corner ornaments each of which has been ornamented to represent a “theme.” The purchaser thus selects a corner ornament design having a theme representative of an aspect of the deceased's life to personalize the casket, for example, a golf corner ornament design could be selected for installation on the casket to reflect that the deceased was an avid golfer.
Once the casket is buried or the deceased is cremated and the funeral or other memorial service is completed, the families are left with few tangible reminders of the funeral or memorial service. Most families receive flowers at the funeral home which pay respect to the deceased and his or her surviving family. These flowers, however, wilt and die after a short time, leaving the family with few remembrances of the funeral or memorial service. It is desirable for the families to receive a more tangible and permanent reminder of the funeral or memorial service.
Prior solutions to this need may be seen in the quick change casket ornament of the assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,340,810, 6,928,706, and 6,591,466, which may be removed from the casket and mounted on either the plaque of the assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,210,204, 6,883,212, and 6,557,222 or the pedestal of the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,385 and presented to a family member or loved one of the deceased. All of these patents are hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in their entirety.
Another more recent solution to this need may be seen with reference to the assignee's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/605,073 for Memorial Casket and Method and published as US Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0299895 on Dec. 2, 2010, hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety. In this application there is disclosed a casket comprising a casket shell adapted to receive the remains of a deceased and having a pair of side walls, a pair of end walls, and a bottom wall, a casket cap closable on the casket shell, and at least one medallion mounted on either an interior surface or an exterior surface of either the cap or the shell, the medallion having text and/or graphics representing a life aspect of the deceased. In one embodiment, the cap includes a dish assembly mounted to an underside of the cap. The dish assembly includes a cap panel comprising a sheet of magnetic material. The medallion has a magnet on a rear side thereof that allows the medallion to be mounted on the cap panel in any desired position.
A typical medallion of the type used with the casket of application Ser. No. 12/605,073 is on the order of about 4.25 inches in diameter and is cast in a die from pewter or aluminum. The die includes a three-dimensional image of the desired life aspect of the deceased; that three-dimensional image is cast into the medallion during the casting process. Once the medallion has been cast and removed from the die, the three-dimensional image of the medallion is hand-painted.
While the type of casket medallion of application Ser. No. 12/605,073 has met with success, the production process of this type of medallion is expensive, tedious, and time consuming. Each different life aspect image requires a separate die. The dies can be expensive, and each die can take weeks to produce. Depending on the popularity of a particular life aspect image, its respective die may only be used a few times to produce only a few medallions, thus driving up the cost per medallion for that particular life aspect image. Each medallion, once cast, must have its three-dimensional image hand painted, which is tedious and time consuming.
Another even more recent solution to this need may be seen with reference to the assignee's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/242,594 filed Sep. 23, 2011 for Casket And Ornament Therefore and published as US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0074299 on Mar. 28, 2013, hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety. In this application there is disclosed a casket comprising a casket shell adapted to receive the remains of a deceased and having a pair of side walls, a pair of end walls, and a bottom wall, and a casket cap closable on the casket shell. A dish assembly is mounted to an underside of the cap. The dish assembly includes a cap panel comprising a sheet of magnetic material. At least one medallion having text and/or graphics representing a life aspect of the deceased is removably mounted on the cap panel. The medallion comprises a medallion blank having at least one magnet on a rear side thereof and having a recess on a front side thereof, and a button removably received in the recess of the medallion blank. The button comprises a button front, a magnetic metallic button back, and a two-dimensional image overlying an upper surface of the button front. The magnet removably secures the medallion blank to the magnetic material of the cap panel, while at the same time securing the button in the recess of the medallion blank.
The medallion of the type used with the casket of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/242,594 provides a number of advantages. Only a single medallion die is required—one for the medallion blank. Only a single type of medallion need be kept in stock by the funeral director—the medallion blank. The funeral director has the capability to make custom medallions onsite at the time of service. A family member need only provide the funeral director with a photo, and the funeral director can assemble onsite a button with commercially available button producing apparatus (or snap together button parts) that displays the photo. The button is then installed into the medallion blank, and the fully assembled medallion is then installed on the casket. Multiple expensive medallion dies, each taking weeks to produce, are no longer required. Tedious and time consuming hand painting of three-dimensional medallions is no longer required.
While the type of casket medallion of application Ser. No. 13/242,594 has met with success, it would be desirable to combine the higher quality “look and feel” of the casket medallion of application Ser. No. 12/605,073 with the ability to make custom casket medallions on site at the time of service per application Ser. No. 13/242,594.